2. LA Clippers Takeaway: The team showed some fight
In the LA Clippers’ first loss of the season, they showed absolutely no fight. The 51 point loss to the Dallas Mavericks left us nothing to talk about, as it was a good old fashioned beat down with no fight from the Clips.
On Friday, there was some life from this team. The Clippers went down big early, falling behind as much as 17 points in the second quarter. Instead of rolling over as they did versus Dallas, however, the team fought back, bringing the deficit down to just three before entering the half down 52-41.
The lead then increased to a game-high 20 points in the third quarter. Things didn’t look too hopeful for the Clips, especially as Mike Conley continued to hit from deep. (He ended up with seven made three pointers in the game.)
Again, unlike versus Dallas, the team fought back and pulled within three before ultimately falling by just six points. Yes, this loss counts the same as any other but this was a much more impressive effort by the team to show resilience.
At the time of that loss, we marked it off as a one off. It’s unreasonable to assume that game had any real meaning and this loss showed us a lot more about the team. The Clips have some fight in them, something they will need come postseason.